ABSTRACT
That there is no simple correlation between therapeutic results and the length and intensity of treatment has been recognised, tacitly or explicitly by most experienced psychoanalysts and is an old source of dissatisfaction among them. Among psychoanalysts there arise two types of reaction to this dissatisfaction. One was constructive like Ferenczi’s relentless experimenting with technique in an effort to isolate the factors responsible for therapeutic results. The other was a self-deceptive defence in the form of an almost superstitious belief that quick therapeutic results cannot be genuine, that they are either those transitory results due to suggestion or an escape into ‘pseudo-healthy’ patients who prefer to give up their symptoms rather than obtain real insight into their difficulties.
